Rico Rodriguez
Rico Rodriguez (Born January 25 1968), sometimes nicknamed "Scorpio", is the main character and playable protagonist in the games Just Cause ''and ''Just Cause 2. ''Rico was 18 years old when he was scouted by Tom Sheldon in 1986. This led him into the mysterious organization within the CIA, simply named "The Agency". History Life Before The CIA & The Agency Little is known about Rico's early life, information i.e. relatives, is very highly classified. Rico was approached by the CIA, specifically Tom Sheldon, during the Invasion of Panama in 1986. Sheldon took Rico under his wing and became his commanding officer and friend, turning him into the agent he is today. Rico's time in The Agency and in the CIA Rico underwent CIA training, but due to his expertise with weapons, vehicles and other gadgets, he soon advanced into The Agency. This was a unit of the CIA which handled extremely dangerous and high risk missions, referred to as "Regime-Change" operations, which involves overthrowing dictatorships that are being ruled unfairly or are no longer US friendly. During his time with The Agency, Rico trained under Sheldon, who taught Rico the skills and techniques he would need to carry out such dangerous operations, and became a good friend and ally. Rico also met Maria Kane, another recruit. Rico and Maria were intimate for a while, and among the occasions, it is implied that they once slept together at her home while avoiding her father. This is something Sheldon is still oblivious to. Nonetheless, the three became close partners, and often dispatched as a team, with Sheldon acting as the commander, in charge of contact with Agency HQ and receiving intel, Maria would deal with weapons and vehicles research and procurement, while Rico would be the field operative, carrying out the dirty work. San Esperito - 2007 Roughly around 2007/08, Rico made a name for himself when he was called to the tropical island of San Esperito, by Sheldon and Maria, who were already there investigating an unknown conspiracy. This would turn out to be his largest, most difficult and dangerous regime change operation to date. His task was to work with the many factions on the island to learn more about the nations dictator Salvador Mendoza, who was believed to be in control of WMDs, and finally put an end to his rule. After landing on the island nation, he breaks out of prison a certain faction leader to aid him in his revolution; José Caramicas. Transporting him to safety earned him the friendship of his faction, and the affections of his grateful sister Ezperanza. He continued to help the faction, and making his way across the nation, meeting new allies and making enemies. With his allies, Rico proceeded and carried out numerous life-risking tasks that included the sabotaging of all Mendoza's businesses and the killing of his corrupt officials. Eventually, Sheldon, Rico and Maria tracked Mendoza down, who had retreated to his own personal island. Rico carried out a full-blown assault upon the island, and fought his way through Mendoza's personal army. Mendoza fled in a jet with Rico in hot pursuit. After Rico jumped aboard Mendoza's flight, the president took a last ditch chance to escape and leaped from the plane. Rico followed, skydiving above him. Catching up with him in free-fall, Rico placed a time-bomb on Mendoza's back, blowing the president into a thousand pieces and ultimately ending Mendoza's evil reign over San Esperito. After the incident, Rico retreated from the Agency and disappeared in Mexico. Panau - 2009 Tom Sheldon suspiciously goes missing with millions of dollars in Agency cash, He is suspected of going rogue. Maria Kane personally tracks down Rico, believing him to to be the only person capable of such a mission. She informs Rico about Sheldon's situation, who has disappeared in the nation of Panau. Rico reluctantly returns and accepts the mission when he hears about Sheldon. He and Kane are flown to Panau, in South-East Asia, whose dictator has suddenly cut all ties to the US. Rico is informed that Sheldon may have gone rogue. Rico grudgingly accepts the fact that he may have to kill his friend and mentor, who taught him everything he knows. Immediately thrown into combat, Rico assaults a military base and retrieves some memory cards with various pieces of intel about the Panau operation on them. Later, Kane and Rico go to visit Karl Blaine, a Swedish Agency asset who has abandoned his mission in favour of gambling and drinking, who is believed to have information on Sheldon. But, after arriving at his house, they are greeted by his apparent girlfriend Jade Tan. Jade tells Rico that Blaine is holed up in a casino and needs help. Rico and Jade ride to the casino, taking a shine to one-another in the process. Rico then forcefully extracts Blaine from the casino and is repaid with a Black Market contact, and the HQ locations of three Panau factions, who in return for Rico's services will dig up information regarding the whereabouts of Sheldon. He works for the "Reapers", led by Bolo Santosi, driven by her want for revolution. The "Roaches", led by Razak "Razor" Razman, a very powerful drug distributor on Panau, though due to his wealth still remains a prominent public figure. Finally, the "Ular Boys", led by Sri Irawan, he is driven simply by his lust for power and independence. All factions disapprove of dictator Baby Panay, who they feel is corrupting their nation. Sure enough, he finds Sheldon and confronts him. Learning about Baby Panay, he realizes that Sheldon had not gone rogue as was believed. Instead, he was on to Panay, whom is believed to have ulterior motives for cutting ties with the US. Rico is given the job of eliminating Panau's corrupt leader to return the country to ''US friendly status. Sheldon tells Rico to keep causing chaos to flush Panay from his hiding spot, and take him down, before parting to make amends with the Agency. As Rico continues to work for the factions, he is abruptly informed that Karl Blaine is missing and isn't to be trusted (he had earlier installed a bug on Rico's PDA). Panay has also captured Jade, who is also revealed as a government agent and was caught snooping around. Rico races to rescue Jade before she is tortured by Panay, and he destroys the base where she is held. From below a frozen lake, a nuclear submarine surfaces, and a convoy make their escape with Jade thrown into a truck. However, Rico foils the plan and hijacks the truck carrying Jade. Both are then rescued by Kane and Sheldon via helicopter. The four of them take a break on a boat where Jade expresses her gratitude towards Rico for saving her. She shares the intel she had gathered which reveals that there are three superpower representatives on Panau who also want to drive out Baby Panay. Knowing of the faction's want to remove Panay from presidency, each of the representatives have allied themselves with a certain faction, providing them with financial backing. Alexander Mirkov; a Russian secret service agent is aiding the Roaches, Zhang Sun, a Chinese leader who is backing the Reapers with his promise of revolution, and a disgraced Japanese general named Masayo Washio allied with the Ular Boys. Unfortunately, Jade was caught before finding out why the superpowers want Panay gone, or what their interest in Panau itself is. They all wonder what a little place like Panau has to offer. Sheldon tells Rico he must continue doing jobs for the factions and retain their trust, in order to discover the locations of these superpower representatives. As Rico prepares to leave, Jade asks what he intends to do, to which Rico replies what he does best, cause chaos. She tells him to take care of himself, but he insists there will be other time for that, jokingly suggesting Jade give him a few tips in the future. Eventually, All three factions unknowingly put Rico in contact with the superpowers, enabling Rico and Sheldon to wipe them out. Sheldon calls Rico to the Three Kings hotel where Mirkov, Sun and Washio are staying. Ironically, none of them know the others are there too. After confronting and defeating all three, Sheldon and Rico again wonder what Panau has that is able to attract the Chinese, Japanese, Russians. After locating Panay, Sheldon sends Rico and a faction to kill him. Arriving at his lair, Panay queries if Rico is on the island to steal its huge oil supply also. It suddenly becomes clear that all this was for oil, the superpowers were after Panau's oil, and wanted rid of Panay in order to get to it. The interaction is cut short by Blaine, who believes Panay killed Jade. He sets off a grenade, killing himself and apparently, Panay also. Rico makes a quick exit as the self-destruct sequence activates. Getting to safety, Rico rages at Sheldon for having him risk his life so much just for oil. They are interrupted by Kane who informs them that Supertankers from rival powers have learned of Panay's death, and are headed toward Panau to seize the oil, which will turn the nation into a field of death and destruction as they all clash over the worlds largest oil supply, with little regard for the inhabitants of the island. Rico is sent to the oil field in preparation for the confrontation of the superpowers, but on his way there, a nuclear sub rises from the water. Rico checks it out, only to discover Panay, having survived the grenade explosion is intent on keeping the oil supply for himself. After overpowering Panay, he flees to the roof of the sub, and reveals to Rico four nukes directed at the superpowers who have come to Panau to take the oil, one directed at America. He launches them, however his clothes are snagged on one of them and he is hauled off with it. Rico grapples onto one and quickly disarms the first three as they speed over the water. Then after a brief scuffle with Panay, Rico slams him into the exposed missile core, where he is unable to free himself, but instead of disarming the missile, he changes the target coordinates... Rico makes an emergency parachute deployment to safety and lands on a boat with Sheldon, Kane and Jade. The missile explodes behind him, having hit the prized oil field, much to Sheldon's dismay. Rico explains his reasons for destroying oil worth so much, to spare the innocent people in Panau from having to live in fear and poverty due to superpowers clashing over the oil, as without it, all interest in Panau is lost. As the group sail along the waters of Panau, the four raise a glass to good deeds, friends and a job well done. It remains to be seen what Rico has in store next. Appearance and Personality During the development of Just Cause, Rico is depicted as the "pretty boy" of spies and of mulatto-Hispanic heritage, described by developers as being: "The child of one thousand comic books and action movies. He is James Bond, Mad Max, Jason Bourne, El Mariachi, Wolverine, Punisher, Rambo, Tony Montana and Han Solo all rolled into one. With a touch of Enrique Iglesias to top it all off!http://www.videogamer.com/xbox/just_cause/preview-248.html" Rico has brown eyes and a tattoo of a scorpion on his upper left arm. He was born on 26th January 1968, and his star-sign is Aquarius. In Just Cause, Rico wears a standard issue Black ops outfit complete with a thin bulletproof vest and parachute. He also wears a cross necklace. In Just Cause, Rico is portrayed as being vaguely sarcastic but confident in his own abilities, and hardly ever loses his temper. He is clearly familiar with the absurdity of the tasks he is given, and occasionally quips in reference to this. He is also shown to have a keen interest in the ladies, attracting the attention of a few women while on his mission, again something he is familiar with. In Just Cause 2, set a few years later, he has since quit the Agency and is sporting a much more rugged look, he is more muscular and has slicked his hair back. He instead wears a black undershirt with sleeves rolled up, covered by an open-collared buttoned leather vest, and also a red arm bandana. Over this he wears a tactical gun holster and fingerless gloves. He also wears a more casual pair of jeans also with gun holsters and a brown stud belt, along with black combat loafers. He still wears the cross necklace and now has the grapple hook fitted to his left arm. Rico's personality has darkened in Just Cause 2. He is somewhat cynical, yet retains his dark sense of humor and occasional wit, but is more serious in his tone. He is also more aggressive and unlike before, does lose his temper on occasions. http://www.eidosinteractive.co.uk/gss/justcause/index.html Appearances/Actors *Game Canon (2 games) **''Just Cause'' (First appearance) **''Just Cause 2'' *Film Canon (1 film) **''Just Cause'' (First appearance) References Gallery Village.jpg|Rico in Just Cause. Revolver.jpg|Ricos signature gun from Just Cause 2.|link=Rico's Signature Gun ricorodriguez.gif|Rico Category:Characters Category:Content